Thursday, July 05, 2007

Will This Do?

By Cernig

The xenophobic right, vocal in the UK but far more so in the U.S., would have it that Muslims don't speak out against terrorism and therefore must condone it. The worst of the xenophobes would have it that all Muslims, secretly or up-front, believe the jihadist, extremist linethat their religion is one of violence against unbelievers.

British Muslims are leading a new campaign condemning the recent attempted car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow. The campaign, titled "Not in Our Name", will be launched across the UK with adverts in newspapers.

It emphasises "the Muslim community's rejection of any attempts to link any such criminal attacks to the teachings of Islam", organisers said.

Muslims from various professions have backed the campaign, including doctors.

The advert, accredited to "Muslims United", also carries a quotation from Koran reading: "Whoever kills an innocent soul, it is as if he killed the whole of mankind.

"And whoever saves one, it is as if he saved the whole of mankind."

'Calm response'

The emergency services have been praised for "working tirelessly and courageously" while the government has been commended for handling the crisis "calmly and proportionately".

The advert, which will also appear on billboards, buses and underground trains, calls for the community to stand united against terrorism.

The campaign has received support from Conservative Muslim Forum, Islamic Relief, the Islamic Society of Britain and Muslim Doctors and Dentists Association among others.

The Muslim communities across Britain are united in condemning the attempted bombings in London and Glasgow.

We are united with the rest of the country at this critical time and are determined to work together to avert any such attacks targeting our fellow citizens, property and country.

Islam forbids the killing of innocent people. We reject any heinous attempts to link such abhorrent acts to the teachings of Islam. • British Muslims should not be held responsible for the acts of criminals. • We commend the government for its efforts to respond to this crisis calmly and proportionately, and welcome both the Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s and the Home Secretary’s emphasis on the need to distinguish between the overwhelming majority of British Muslims who are law-abiding citizens and a few criminals who seek to inflict harm and terror on our country.• We express support for the emergency services who are working tirelessly and courageously to avert these attacks and ensure the safety of our country.• We urge the media and all politicians to continue to maintain the values of our open society, free from prejudice and discrimination, sustained by tolerance and mutual respect for all. • We call on our government to work towards a just and lasting peace in areas of conflict around the world and to take the lead in helping eliminate the injustices and grievances that foment division and nurture violence.

The unity of our society must be maintained and we must not allow divisions to emerge between us. We must remain friends, neighbours and colleagues, and take Britain forward as one nation – towards a Greater Britain.

I'm kidding of course - for the xenophobes and Blimpoids there can never be enough proof that Muslems as a whole are no more or less enamoured of terrorism to advance their religion than Christians as a whole, or Hindus, or Jews. Which should in itself be sufficient proof that the xenophobes who decry Islam in such generalized terms are as much a part of the moral problem, the problem of fostering hate and misinformation, as the vocal islamist extremists who encourage a mirror-image of their extreme views.

UpdateTold you so. Dan Riehl writes that this won't do because, he says, "its primary goal is to suggest Islamist terror is not linked to Islam." Dan seems to be basing that on a sentence from the poster saying that "We reject any heinous attempts to link such abhorrent acts to the teachings of Islam", coupled with deliberately ignoring any interpretation of that as meaning such links made by the terrorists themselves, despite the preceeding sentence saying that "Islam forbids the killing of innocent people." It's pretty clear to me that the poster is saying that while the terrorists try to hide behind religion, Muslims should not allow them to do so and call them out. Dan's deliberately misconstruing that as an attempt at dodging the issue.

Or if not, perhaps he'd like to castigate Christians who don't accept that anti-abortion acts of violence such as clinic bombings and doctor shootings have their basis as form of Christianity and who thus try to seperate such nutcases from Christianity as a whole. They're just being denialist, according to Dan. He would surely say "Sorry, it is, whether so-called moderates like it, or not." Wouldn't he?